Performance Simulation: The Method.

A logical, performer-based approach to teaching psychomotor skills is described. Four phases of surgical psychomotor skills training are identified, using an example from a dental preclinical training curriculum: (1) dental students are acquainted with the postural and positional parameters of balanced psychomotor performances; (2) students learn the basic psychomotor skills in a setting that stimulates an optimal operational setting regarding spatial dimensions, tissues, and perceptual features (e.g., sight, sound, smell); (3) students apply the basic skills in an optimal clinical setting that is consistent with their preclinical setting; and (4) students apply their knowledge of postural and positional parameters (performance logic) to nonideal operational settings so they can learn to adapt equipment to their needs as human operators. The example from dental training is the surgical cutting of dental hard tissues with a high speed aid turbine handpiece. The following steps are involved: specifying parameters in numerical terms for both task end product and process; confirming parameters plus performance practice, evaluating the targeted tooth, cutting simulated tissues in the simulation setting, evaluating the end product, and correlating process and product. Worksheets and diagrmas that illustrate these steps are included. (SW)